Golden Fields

I still can’t stop thinking about my meal here and it was a month ago! I always gauge an amazing dining experience by being able to distinctly remember all of the dishes you ate and the flavours. This is the case with Golden Fields and I am absolutely dying to go back. That’s why I’m upgrading my review to five stars :)

Across from the southeast end of Albert Park in the more gentrified area of St Kilda on Fitzroy Street stands Golden Fields. Even more minimalist in design compared to Coda with a long bar and high stools and nearly vacant walls, this one hatted restaurant, which is part of the Andrew McConnell empire certainly has a fair amount going for it, which I discovered when I took a much anticipated trip around its menu recently.
Inspecting the menu, I wanted to try everything on the «raw» menu but in the end ordered everything except the oysters. Given there is a fairly decent list of sake to choose from at the front of the wine list, it seemed appropriate to match the delicate raw flavours of seafood with «Ippongi» Denshin Yuki Junmail Ginjo 720ml ($ 140) and judging from my recent positive experiences at Sake Restaurant and Akachochin, I knew a good sake would only bring out the best in what was scavenged from the sea.
Kingfish with salmon roe, scud chilli, ginger and lime ($ 16) was the first sacrifice that we would make all in the name of good dining. The flavours, further enhanced by the scud chilli, but most notably the sake pairing made an awesome first impression. I was floored when the dining evolved to an even higher level after I tried the offering of tuna, oyster cream and picked shittake ($ 18) which was my favourite of the raw dishes. The oyster cream was delightful and perhaps one of the best pairings with fish that I have found yet anywhere. Rottnest Island scallops with avacado, apple and miso ($ 17) followed. I have always fancied the bivalve mollusk from Rottnest Island over say the Hervey Bay region and the blend of avacado and especially the apple really did our dirty friends from the deep justice. The sake proved to be a great match and was recommended by our server, Rachel, who throughout the four hours that we were languishing at the restaurant remained very helpful and good humoured. She was kind enough to keep our bottle of sake on ice at the bar so she really had to go out of her way to ensure that our small glasses were always filled and for that I am very grateful.
One of the signature dishes at Golden Fields is the New England lobster roll — a hot buttered bun with cold poached crayfish, watercress and kewpie lovingly stuffed into the centre of said bun. Brilliant. Once this was devoured, another round of lobster rolls were ordered just because it was so damn good and I wanted to savour the taste with the remains of the sake once again. I found it intriguing when I learned that Big Day Out 2013 is working with Golden Fields and they will be providing not only lobster rolls but also fried chicken Bahn-​mi and peanut butter parfait ice-​cream sandwiches for sale at the festival. Considering that food at festivals is generally rubbish (I still think of the movie Kenny and his commentary on why festivals serve curries and other rubbish) I have really started pondering actually attending Big Day Out knowing the likes of Golden Fields and St Ali will be there adding a bit of taste and flavour to the proceedings.
With the sake exhausted, we moved on to the «Meat and Fish» part of the menu and decided that since it was Sunday, it was appropriate to order slow-​roast lamb shoulder with cumin and salted lemon ($ 74) which was perfect to share along with a 2011 Roussanne-​Marsanne-​Viognier, Story (Grampians, Victoria) which seemed a logical match. It takes about 35 minutes for this dish to come out and the time flew since we were engaged in pleasant conversation and still enjoying reminiscing about the beautiful «raw» menu. When the roast emerged, there was roughly of 800g of perfectly tender meat still on the bone. Although a knife was provided to carve it, it was not needed. You could use your fork to easily remove the meat and when enhance the flesh with a dash of cumin and a splash of lemon, it made for the perfect Sunday roast on what turned out to be a great Sunday afternoon.
The thoughtfully minimalist fit-​out ensures that you focus on your dining companions and the food and wine. There are no gimmicks at Golden Fields which was refreshing and genuine professionals providing service just sealed the deal and makes me want to return and have more tasty delights soon; as I froth out of the mouth on the keyboard as I type out this article.

Just about every dish was a hit… Come early!

St Kilda is an inner-​city bayside township with a history, and present, of extreme contradictions. Palatial mansions with breathtaking sea views, twin-​set pearls and long-​established fine dining institutions with soaring prices, juxtaposed against grubby medium-​density housing, bohemian hipsters and grungy seedy bars attracting the fishnets and leathers. It is in this suburb of contradictions, opposite the lushness of Albert Park, that Golden Fields is situated. As the newly-​born sibling to Cutler & Co and Cumulus, Golden Fields is similarly endowed with an air of monochromatic modern minimalism. Black chairs are silhouetted against the abundant natural light flooding through the floor-​to-​ceiling front windows. The halogen-​bright industrial lighting reflects in deco mirrors and bounces off the galley bar’s cool marble slickness and a white tiled wall that almost shimmers in the same way as Shanghai skyscrapers on a hot summer day. Perching on the galley bar’s shelves are chemistry lab features of Erlenmeyer flasks and a stuffed wild bird, and kooky touches of a gleaming rollerskate, happy waving gold cat and bonsai-​ed flora pots that soften an otherwise austere décor. Haunted-​house red chicken feet clawed into the side walls completes the quirky, St Kilda-​esque vibe.
…Just as St Kilda is a suburb of contradictions, Australia is a country of contradictions. Deriving most of its recent history from the West, it yearns for closer connection, but is geographically situated and increasingly fascinated with the East. In the antique world, this fascination gave expression to the Chinoiserie movement a century or so ago. In the culinary world today, it is called fusion. It is in this doubly grey space of contradictions that Golden Fields sits. Yet, like its siblings, defying labels of modern Australian and also, modern Asian cuisine, Golden Fields occupies a world of its own. But, if «New China» is the «new frontier of world food» (as noted here), then with a décor that showcases an incredible attention to thematic detail down to the very plates and cutlery, and with creations that already exude calligraphic sensitivity, poise and strength, Golden Fields — with perhaps a little fine-​tuning to the service — offers the opportunity to dine in a 21^st century culinary Elysian Fields, accentuated by a brushstroke of Chinoiserie exoticism.

There are few pleasures in life I love more than eating at an Andrew McConnell restaurant.
Golden Fields is brilliant. The staff greet you like a regular, regardless of whether it’s your first visit or 10^th (I have noticed this trend at Cumulus Inc too). The place is always abuzz, but open enough to hear your friends.
As for the food. Well… the first time I came here I tried the twice-​cooked duck. I found myself immediately grabbing for my phone to tweet simply «food-​gasm». My date and I joked that we shouldn’t look at each other for the shame of how much we were enjoying the company of that duck.
The Lobster Roll is a popular dish, it’s damn good, but there are plenty of stars on the menu. The pork dumplings are much like the twice-​cooked duck. Fluffy, steamy buns filled with melt-​in-​your-​mouth pork. Their salads are reminiscent of that favourite gem-​dish you stumbled across in asia. It’s all amazing.
On my first visit, I was seated at the bar and distracted by the array of very tempting looking desserts. So I overlooked the much hyped ‘Peanut-​butter parfait”. Don’t. I’m not a massive dessert lover (being lactose intolerant, I eat these things at my own detriment!), but this is just the perfect balance of sweet and salty. I took a sweet-​toothed girlfriend here for a catch up dinner and even she agreed it was one of the best she’s had.
This place will have you dreaming about it long after you’ve left.

Dear Andrew McConnell,
I know you must get many fan letters and so I hope that mine makes it in to your hands without having to pass through some chain of assistants, bodyguards and personal secretaries.
I want to tell you how much I like Golden Fields. I love Cutler & Co, I love Cumulus (a lot) but Golden Fields… well it kind of turns me in to some love-​struck teenager whenever I sit there at the bar watching the chefs, or at one of the beautiful tables with a group of friends enjoying the light-​filled space and the parade of food and drink that inevitably comes.
I like that you brought the infamous pork buns here from Cutler, but frankly I think the twice cooked duck with steamed buns beat them in the ‘carbs filled with tasty meat’ competition. I love the duckfish and the texture of the Morton bay bugs with the shaved cabbage, Kampot pepper and mint blow my mind. Of course the sea urchin and lardo on flat bread are incredible.
But you know what I really love, A-​Mac? The steamed eggplant, silken tofu and chilli. It’s one of those dishes that seems «boring» on the menu — I try and order them now and then because I think they must feel left out. I’m so glad I ordered this the first time I visited Golden Fields because now, honestly, it’s the dish that keeps me up at night with food cravings. It’s the dish I could eat at just about any time of day. It’s one of your best and I now order it on every visit. Simple, yet perfect.
Anyway, I do hope you keep surprising Melbourne with your culinary genius. We’re so lucky to have you.
Lots of Love
Tresna L
PS. I hope your staff at Golden Fields get looked after at Christmas this year. They’re amazing.

Oh, Golden Fields.
For those of you who enjoy seafood and can eat gluten, I have two words for you:
Lobster Burger
For everyone else… go anyway, this is trendy buzzing restaurant /​bar with a rapidly growing reputation that is well and truly deserved.
The restaurant describes its cuisine as ‘asian inspired’ I’d go for something like tapas + asian + middle eastern + modern australian.
Golden Fields is another restaurant trying out that terribly fashionable and nasty habit of not taking reservations for groups smaller than eight. If you want to be sure of a table, go at an odd hour — have a late lunch at 5pm, for example. Or get together a crowd.
Either way, start saving. Those tiny lobster burgers I mentioned? $ 15 a pop.